Wait Wait
by Jeff
Image text: You can't stab Karl Kasell. He sounds all slow and stentorian, but he moves like a snake.
Wait Wait... Don't Tell Me! (wikipedia) is an hour-long weekly radio news panel game show produced by Chicago Public Radio and National Public Radio. The show is hosted by playwright and actor Peter Sagal. This comic is making puns on the title of the show based on what Peter Sagal did that was newsworthy.
Carl Kasell, who also served as the newsreader on Morning Edition, is the show's official judge and scorekeeper. (I assume that is who Randall meant in the second paper in the second row and in the image text despite the Karl, Carl confusion. Which I believe is part of the point, that most people spell his name wrong, if this Language blog is to be believed.)
In the 3rd row, first paper, Lakshmi Singh is NPR's national midday newscaster.
In the 3rd row, 3rd paper is a reference to a protest at Occupy Berkley UC Davis (On the campus of University of California, Berkley University of California, Davis) protests earlier this year in which sitting, peaceful protesters were calmly pepper-sprayed in their faces by a police officer. That spawned an internet meme of epic proportions.
In the 4th row, 2nd paper is a reference to the movie, Ghostbusters.
In the 5th row, 3rd paper is a reference to another internet meme in where someone leaves out the verb in the sentence. It is based on the I Accidentally ___ meme. link.
In the 5th row, 3rd paper, all I can find on Eldritch is that it was a Dungeons and Dragons' book, also is used in Terry Prachett's DiscWorld. Generally, it means and evil being.
Also, as always, still looking for back catalog xkcd explanations. Still working through a bunch of them.
December 30th, 2011
Eldritch: 1.unearthly, alien, supernatural, weird, spooky, eerie
(http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/eldritch)
December 30th, 2011
A good example of an eldritch being is Cthulhu, or mostly any being of the Lovecraftian mythos.
December 30th, 2011
Thanks, thought it was something to that extent!
December 30th, 2011
A better example from the Cthulhu Mythos is “Hastur the Unspeakable”, that actually is supposed to maybe show up if you say its name out loud: see August Derleth’s stories; TSR’s “AD&D Deities & Demigods”, 1980, p 45.
December 30th, 2011
Maybe a bit off topic, but I am so totally waiting for Randall to come on the air now and play “Not my Job” (one of the features on Wait-Wait, of course,
For those who aren’t privy to NPR’s news quiz, there’s more at this link (including downloading a show, to get a sense of what it’s all about.)
http://www.npr.org/programs/wait-wait-dont-tell-me/
(let’s hope the link makes it through…)
December 30th, 2011
That was my first thought as well. No doubt Randall will be getting an invitation from Chicago soon.
December 30th, 2011
Is it too obvious, or too passe, to say that I half expected there to be a “Wait, Wait, Don’t Tase Me, Bro” headline? Maybe Randall has a higher quality threshold than me.
December 30th, 2011
Nah, I was looking for it too.
December 30th, 2011
This comic is akin to a vintage Saturday Night Live sketch in which Dana Carvey plays Tom Brokaw. Before going on vacation, Brokaw is in the studio recording some “breaking news” pieces in case something happens while he’s gone, so the station doesn’t get scooped, and Brokaw can still be the one to break the story. In the sketch, the stories all revolve around the death of US president Gerald Ford, with head headline becoming more and more farcical and unlikely, just like these comics (the last few include Ford being chopped up into little bits by a plane propeller, being eaten by wolved ["he was delicious"], strangulation by zombie Richard Nixon, and the US being invaded by Zimbabwe [the story is read in a mock African language]).
I’m curious if this is an actual practice of television news; but clearly it is a practice of written news to have some stories ready to go in case certain things occur. Most of these are obituaries for those in ill health or at an advanced age, or simply in such a notorious position that it would be important to post an obituary as fast as posible. Other stories include alternate outcomes of events (news will often have stories written for an election night for a series of different outcomes).
December 30th, 2011
Cthulu is the main example of an ‘eldritch’ being.
December 30th, 2011
This is Randall’s second reference to the “I accidentally __” meme. See also:
http://xkcd.com/550/
December 30th, 2011
I believe one of the items they do on the “Wait, Wait, don’t tell me” is a series of three outlandish headlines, 2 false and 1 true.
December 30th, 2011
That segment is called “Bluff the Listener” in which each panelist tells a story, in which only one is true.
For any WWDTM fans out there, I maintain a WWDTM Statistics Page at http://closedsrc.org/_apps/waitwaitstats/
December 30th, 2011
The Pepper Spray incident was at the University of California Davis campus, not Berkley.
December 30th, 2011
You are right. Thanks! Fixed.
December 31st, 2011
And moot now with the fix, but under the heading of “other things that are frequently spelled incorrectly” that’d be Berkeley, not Berkley, as I was informed many years ago by a student applying there… (Seems that’s grounds enough for rejecting an otherwise perfect application essay, or so I’m told; attention to detail and all that…)
UCB also had its own Occupy movement on the steps of Sproul Hall, complete with beligerent UC police, so the conflation is understandable.
December 31st, 2011
Odd, I have not even noticed these “Occupy $Campus” movements, but thought of Occupy Walllstreet, where pepperspray was used as well.
December 30th, 2011
I love it when my personal favorite cultural worlds collide. If xkcd and They Might Be Giants cross-over, I’ll probably wet my pants!
I vote for a live Wait Wait broadcast from my house with John/John as panelists and Randall as the Not My Job guest! I’ll supply the drinks
December 30th, 2011
Your first “5th Row 3rd paper” should be “5th Row 2nd Paper”.
December 30th, 2011
The 5th row, 3rd paper is almost certainly Cthulu. The language used is very similar to language used by Lovecraft, and there is a Cthulu meme on the internet (check knowyourmeme) in which forum posters use similar language to describe the immense horror of Cthulu.
December 31st, 2011
There’s not only a meme on the internet, there’s an entire vault:
http://www.goominet.com/unspeakable-vault/vault/4/
December 30th, 2011
Fourth row, third paper; “Wait wait don’t dissect me” I think the smaller line of text within the ‘article’ reads “I aten’t dead!” which would be a reference to Terry Pratchett’s Discworld character Granny Weatherwax, who frequently leaves her body by a sort of astral projection, and always holds a sign with that disclaimer while doing so, ever since an unfortunate misunderstanding in her youth.
December 31st, 2011
Is there a website that explains this website? I am over 40. Thank you.
December 31st, 2011
I am 39. I still understand it. But it’s getting harder.
December 31st, 2011
I’m 64, and, while I don’t always understand the original comics, so far I’ve always been able to understand the explanations.
January 3rd, 2012
The comic is also having fun with the apparent requirement for writers of headlines (and lead-in sound bites, in the case of broadcast media) to use the most obvious and/or horrible puns possible. So any headline involving Sagal would have to start with “Wait Wait Don’t…”
Jeff, benefit of a doubt: I know you meant “an evil being” when you said “and evil being” … spell-checker misfiring perhaps?
January 6th, 2012
* Fifth row, 2nd comic for the meme reference.